What’s Your Writing Environment

About ten years ago, I started writing. We had a desktop and nothing else. Back in the office, which was really the fourth bedroom on the ground floor next to the family room. Amidst the clutter of the office, I churned out about 20,000 words one November spurred on by my first encounter with NaNoWriMo. By the end of that December, I had lost the energy for the thing and I took a few months off from it.

The biggest reason for that break? I was spending that time away from the kiddos. They were eight and five at the time. They were fun. We played games, we played outside, I read them books at bed time. I struggled for a few months with the balance between writing and family.

The solution? I got my first laptop. Over the next six months, I finished the first draft of Bridgeport. Pecking away at my laptop, while sitting outside with my kids. While they swam, I sat under the patio cover and typed, mixing in an occasional cannonball and waterfight. Or out front, they’d run around while I supervised. And wrote.

Things have changed since then. I’m on my third laptop. The internet distractions are much more significant — that’s actually the biggest problem. But, the second biggest problem is this — I no longer want to write in their company. There’s this bubble I need to be in to be able to really write. I do better writing on my own now than I did then.

Other writers talk about their writing space. Some even have their very own writing room.

My writing space is my lap. On the recliner in the corner of our family room. People are invariably about. More often than not the TV is on.

Here’s what I’m looking forward to. Just a little bit warmer weather and I’ll be out on the back patio most evenings. Trying to write. Trying to avoid the distractions. Unlike ten years ago, away from my boys and their childish fun. Thing is, they’re not eight and five any more. It’s not the same. I mean, how much fun can it be sitting and watching your kid text.